Does the supply of a welfare state create its own demand? Many economic scholars studying welfare arrangements refer to Say's law and insinuate a self-destructive welfare state. However, little is known about the empirical validity of these assumptions and hypotheses. We study the dynamic effect...

In der gesellschaftlichen Diskussion wird derzeit das Risiko zunehmender Altersarmut in Ostdeutschland thematisiert. Begründet wird dies unter anderem mit der hohen Arbeitslosigkeit und den dadurch unterbrochenen Erwerbsbiographien sowie den oftmals niedrigen Arbeitseinkommen, die nur geringe...

New data makes it possible to measure the evolution of social program generosity over the roughly three decades since the affluent democracies entered the "era of austerity." Compared with plausible expectations derived from power resource theory, as well as prior historical experience, these...